


Blanket Fort

by RainbowArches



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M, pointless fluff that tapers off into pointless fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:57:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5797774
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowArches/pseuds/RainbowArches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just like the title suggests, Melinda and Andrew build a fort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blanket Fort

It was never a good sign when Melinda was home before Andrew. It meant that a job had kept her from yesterday morning to the next evening without sleep or a real meal. Andrew would complain if he didn’t know that not a person in SHIELD had avoided a day like that. He had friends in much safer careers who’d had days like that. _Andrew_ had had days like that. And that was just a long day at SHIELD. _Bad_ days were typically longer. He wanted to complain, but only because he and Melinda took it personally when the other one had a bad day.

Melinda was asleep on the couch when Andrew got home, around suppertime. Andrew wanted to curl up with her and go to sleep, but he was starving and he knew Melinda would be too when she woke up. He went to the kitchen and considered the contents of the fridge. He really didn’t feel like cooking. He’d bought doughnuts on the way home and was torn between digging into them now and waiting until after supper. He and Melinda would enjoy them more after supper, if he could summon enough ambition to make supper. Takeout was always an option, but they were trying not to rely on fast food every time they didn’t feel like cooking. They were both capable cooks; Melinda knew how to prepare the ingredients and Andrew knew how to make everything edible. It was healthier.

But he just didn’t have the energy tonight, so he ordered two pizzas with everything on them. That’s the kind of food they craved after long tiring days. Nothing wrong with indulging once in a while.

He sat at the other end of the couch where Melinda’s feet didn’t quite reach, until she stretched, squishing him into the arm of the couch. He wrapped his had around her feet to alert her to his presence.

“I ordered pizza,” he said, assured that she was awake.

She yawned. “Good.”

He inched closer and lifted her feet into his lap to massage them. She sighed happily and closed her eyes again.

“Bad mission?”

“Mm… we got out happy ending eventually. Bad kids?”

“Bad colleagues.”

Andrew looked around the living room. Nostalgia hit him as his mind took in all the furniture they’d collected and rearranged them into a familiar childhood mess of a shelter.

“Did you ever build forts as a kid?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“Do you want to build one now?”

Melinda opened her eyes to look at him and raise an eyebrow. “Really?”

“I’m having a sudden craving. This is the kind of day that would have inspired me to build a fort as a kid. I sucked at it, which only made things worse, but I bet I can get it to hold together now.”

“How did you manage to suck at forts?”

“I couldn’t keep the roof from caving in.”

“Ah,” said Melinda, nodding sagely. “You made it too heavy. You only need one or two blankets for the roof, but my friends always wanted to use ten.”

“So did I. But I’m sure my fort-building skills have improved since then. So do you want to build one with me?”

Melina regarded him for a long time, as though waiting for the punchline, but when none was forthcoming she swung her feet off his lap and said, “Yeah, alright.”

Melinda disappeared upstairs while Andrew pushed the furniture around. He moved the couch against the window, and then did the same with the two-seater, leaving plenty of room in the middle. He pushed the armchair against the two-seater to even out the lengths.

Melinda had changed into her pajamas. She came downstairs with a stack of sheets and blankets and pillows big enough to cover her head.

“Wow, you go all out,” Andrew teased, taking half the stack from her.

Melinda dropped the remaining covers on the ground. She picked up two sheets and handed them to him. “These are the roof,” she said. “Everything else goes inside.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“I’ll be right back.”

Melinda disappeared again, leaving Andrew to furnish the fort. He stretched the two sheets over the couches. He crawled inside and laid out the unzipped sleeping bag and over top of that the comforter. Then he piled all the pillows against the wall and along the couches. He spread the remaining blankets over the comfort, leaving them loose and easy to crawl under. Melinda returned with her laptop, a lava lamp and another sheet. She slid the laptop inside and tucked the sheet into the ends of the couch and the armchair to create a door. Then she set the lava lamp outside of the entrance and turned it on, giving the fort an underwater effect.

She’d also brought down a pair of Andrew’s pajamas, which she threw at him after she’d crawled inside.

“Put those on. You’re not going to have any fun if you stay in your work clothes.”

So Andrew squirmed out of his work clothes, which Melinda shoved through the sheet-door, and into his pajamas.

“So what movie do you want to watch?” Melinda asked.

Andrew let out the chuckle he’d been holding in. “You’re really serious about this stuff, aren’t you?”

Melinda pulled an affronted look. “When have I done anything by halves?”

Andrew settled into the pillows and stretched his arms towards her invitingly. “Can the movie wait?”

“Why?” Melinda asked as she fitted herself in his arms. “Do you have something else in mind?”

“I might.” He kissed her once on the lips before moving to her neck.

“Care to tell me what it is?”

“Am I being too subtle?”

Melinda flipped them over so that he was on top of her. The doorbell rang.

Andrew sighed. “I forgot I ordered pizza.” He left the safety of the fort and hunted for his wallet. Melinda came out too to get plates and napkins. There was no need to take the whole boxes into the fort with them. They rarely finished one box between them. The leftovers were either tomorrow’s supper or Clint and Natasha’s breakfast.

They crawled carefully back into the fort, making sure to keep the grease and sauce on the plates.

“Okay, I guess we’re watching a movie,” Andrew said. “You pick.”

It was better to have Melinda pick what they would watch because she’d always change her mind about fifteen minutes in and switch to something else. She’d do this four or five times before deciding they should play a game instead. Andrew never had time to get invested enough in the story to care, though now he was wishing he’d thought to bring a deck of cards so that he wouldn’t have to leave the fort again.

“You’ll have to go out anyway to get the doughnuts, won’t you?”

“Oh yeah. I forgot I bought those.”

“Also can you turn all the lights off and bring the reading lamp?”

“Okay.”

Andrew took the dishes with him and came back with the doughnuts and the lamp. The fort felt more secretive and private in the dark save for the orange and blue glow from the lamps. They were both way more enthusiastic about the doughnuts than the card game. Andrew could feel himself crashing almost immediately but didn’t say anything. Melinda was the one who’d had the hellish day so she got to decide what to do and for how long, and Andrew was determined to keep up.

But Melinda was yawning and didn’t appear terribly interested in the game.

“We don’t have to keep playing if you’re tired,” Andrew said.

“I am tired, but I don’t want to go to sleep ‘cause I’ll have to go back to work in the morning.”

“We can leave the fort up. I’ll buy more desserts. Or we can bake something.”

“Are you trying to get me excited for tomorrow so that you can sleep?”

“Maybe.”

Melinda yawned again. “It’s working.” She unplugged the lamp and restacked the cards and shoved everything outside the fort. It was still pretty early but they could both use some extra sleep. They crawled under the covers and watched the light from the lava lamp play on the sheet.

“I seem to remember you had some fun in mind earlier before we were interrupted,” Melinda said. “Wanna continue where we left off?”

Andrew kissed the top of her head. “You’re tired. We don’t have to.”

Melinda kissed him back appreciatively. “Tomorrow though?”

“If you want. Are we being too determined to turn this into a sex fort?”

“ _Pfft._ Of course not. It’s a grownup fort.”

They fell asleep a lot earlier than they normally did, but the nice thing about that was they woke up with plenty of time to enjoy the fort the way they wanted to before they had to go to work.


End file.
